The present invention relates to utility knives in general, and more particularly to a utility knife or cutter that is especially constructed and suited for cutting corrugated boxes open either along their edges, or at any other regions thereof, without damaging the contents of such boxes.
Utility knives and similar tools are already known in a variety of constructions. In most instances, such a utility knife utilizes a cutting blade which is constituted by or has a configuration resembling that of a razor blade. Yet, generally speaking, the cutting blade may have any shape which is best suited for the performance of the cutting action. The cutting blade is then immovably mounted in a holding arrangement or holder in such a manner that at least one cutting edge of the cutting blade is exposed so that it can be inserted into the object to be cut and an incision can be made by moving the holder relative to the object in such a way that the cutting edge of the cutting blade is in front.
Utility knives of this construction can be used, for instance, for cutting boxes, especially of corrugated board, open to gain access to the contents thereof. This cutting operation is usually to be performed as close to the respective edge of the box as possible to assure that, after the cutting operation is completed, for instance, by cutting along at least three of the top edges of the box, the remainder of the box will not fall apart and spill the contents thereof, while convenient removal of the contents, without undue manipulation, is assured after the top portion of the box has been moved into its open position. However, it is often also desirable to cut open such boxes at regions other than along the edges, and even then it is desirable that the cutting be done without damage to the box contents.
An application in which such utility knives are frequently used is in opening boxes in supermarkets and similar commercial establishments. In this environment, the box to be cut open often is a shipping carton whose contents consists of a multitude of smaller cartons each of which contains the item to be sold, be it a quantity of cereal, or another foodstuff, or of other flowable material, or another item or a plurality of items contained in a package. Regardless of the item, items or the contents of the packages contained in the box, it is undesirable from the viewpoint of the manufacturer of the item or contents and, in most instances, even from the viewpoint of the store owner, when the smaller carton or package is damaged or destroyed during the cutting operation, be it because the contents of such smaller box may spill if the smaller box is damaged and thus require a cleaning operation which detracts from more productive work of the store employee, or because the appearance of the smaller box on display is less attractive and hence less likely to entice the potential customer into purchasing the item contained in the box. The incentive to avoid damage to the smaller packages is especially great for the manufacturers, many if not all of whom have established a policy of giving credit to their customers for damaged packages. This credit may take the form of full refund for any returned damaged packages, in which case the customer has no incentive to keep the number of the damaged packages to a minimum. To make the customer interested in minimizing the number of damaged packages, many manufacturers give a credit in the form of a certain percentage of the items delivered, so that any damage in excess of this flat rate will be the responsibility of the store owner, and any lowering of the damage below the flat rate will inure to the benefit of the store owner. This, however, does not assure that the person doing the actual cutting will be careful not to damage the smaller packages contained in the large carton or box while cutting the latter open, since such a person has only a minimum stake in the outcome of the cutting operation and, in many instances, is not very skilled to begin with.
In view of this situation, attempts have already been made to develop a utility knife especially suited for the above discussed purpose of cutting large boxes containing a plurality of smaller packages open with minimum, if any, damage to the packages. The results of these attempts may be seen, for instance, in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,527,220; 1,908,851; 2,550,346; 2,682,104 and 3,430,339. However, these known solutions possess certain disadvantages, one of which is that such utility knives are rather unwieldy and are of multi-part construction. Thus, for instance, in the conventional constructions, the replacement of a worn-out cutting blade requires the manipulation of a great many separate parts, and is a very cumbersome and time-consuming operation, resulting in a substantial amount of wasted time. The manipulation of a great number of separate parts increases the likelihood that the blade replacement will not be done at the proper time, and the individual parts are more prone to being misplaced. Moreover, the shapes of such conventional utility knives or implements are such that they cannot be simply put into a pocket, which results in a situation where they are often mislaid or even lost, resulting in additional loss of time and money. Moreover, the cutting edges of the cutting blades of these conventional arrangements are not altogether reliably guided at all times during the cutting operation, thereby sometimes resulting in a jagged cut in the box, especially when the level of carefulness is diminished. Apparently for these reasons, these conventional constructions, as advantageous as they may seem to be from the operational point of view, did not achieve wide acceptance in the field, and the cutting operation is usually performed by utility knives of other constructions which do not have the above drawbacks but which are more likely to cause damage to the contents of the box being cut open because they are not designed for the specific purpose of cutting such corrugated boxes open.
A corrugated carton cutter which avoids at least some of the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art has recently been proposed in a pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 460,946, filed Jan. 24, 1983, entitled "Corrugated Carton Cutter", in the names of Stanley Ruff, et al. Although generally satisfactory for its intended purpose of cutting boxes open along their edges without damaging the contents of such boxes, said proposed cutter is not altogether versatile in the sense that it cannot be used for cutting the boxes open at regions other than along their edges. So, for instance, if it is desired to cut along a diagonal or other line, whether straight or curved, on a box surface, said proposed cutter could not be used, because it is designed to cut along the edge regions of the box. The capability of performing a cutting operation at other than the edge regions of the box is highly desirable in many applications, particularly in a supermarket, where the shipping carton may be designed to be opened along a box surface away from its edge regions, typically for the purpose of converting the shipping carton into a point-of-purchase display box.